Fan Fic - The Witch's Stone

[Neshae]

This is the sequel to my fan fic, Memories, which can be found here: viewtopic.php?t=4669
I wrote this one cause towards the end of Memories I realized I never made up why the knaaren were in the Fairy Counsil. XD

Prologue

Fhuyt sat at the desk, reading the ancient tomes of forgotten wisdom. As always, he was training himself to constantly get better at everything he did. The Shades Against Evil (SAE) organization needed the strongest leader they could get. And he was going to be it.

His mind began to travel from the book to the amulet hidden in his desk drawer. It was almost as if it were in danger. Tempistus was no longer alive and neither was Dark, but there would always be someone who would try to steal it. He wondered if it would have been right to let Alaesia have it. She was getting stronger every day. She might even one day be stronger than Fhuyt himself.

He opened the drawer, just to make sure it was still in there. The two snakes, bound together by a ring, glowed brightly in the dark drawer. The Snake Cross Amulet was still safe.

The door burst open and creatures stormed through it. There were three of them. They were humanoid-like in appearance, but their hands and feet had claws, almost instead of fingers and toes. The hoods on their heads shadowed their faces, making them seem even more frightening.

Fhuyt closed the drawer, but the creatures had already seen it. They knocked the desk over with surprising strength, making papers and books fly everywhere.

The elf tried to use his magic to stop them, but they seemed invincible. A few SAE members came in to his aid, but their magic and weapons did nothing.

One creature ripped the drawer out of the desk. The Snake Cross Amulet flew out of the drawer and into the creature’s hand. Fhuyt made one last attempt to stop the creatures by using his wind magic to take back the amulet, but failed. Another one of the creatures hit the back of his head and knocked him out.

Chapter 1

The sky was blue. Clouds drifted through the soft, warm, spring breeze. The grass was green in the small valley as Ly spread out the picnic blanket. Rayman came up next carrying a basket in each hand, Globox at his side.

Rayman was just putting the baskets down when his right hand suddenly felt like a knife had been shoved through it. He cried out in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Ly asked.
Rayman took the glove off his hand and looked at it. The skin was purple where he had touched the witch’s stone.

Rayman; his brother, Neshae; and a girl from another world, Alaesia, needed to be teleported to the Desert of the Knaaren to find the Snake Cross Amulet. The witch that teleported them had made them all touch a stone to magically bind them to their promise that they would do her a favor when she asked for it.

“I have to go.” Rayman said, replacing the glove. “The witch has called for her favor.”
He ran off before Ly could say anything else. He knew she didn’t like him leaving before the picnic even started. He didn’t either. But he had to go meet the others at the Fairy Counsel.


The cloudy sky threatened rain. Thunder and lightning clashed out in the distance over the ocean. Waves of cold water washed the beach and rocks. Two figures walked along the sand, collecting clams and crabs.

The first was a man. His hair was dark and came to just above his shoulders. His skin was slightly more pale than that of a normal person and his eyes were black. He wore a cloak made of black silk and a belt around his waist. On that belt was his sword. Around his neck was a gold chain with a small, gold charm, which was a simple letter “A”.

The second was a woman who also had dark hair. Her eyes were orange and seemed alive like a Jack o lantern on Halloween night. She wore more simple clothes than the man. A green shirt and jeans with black tennis shoes worked just fine for her. Around her neck was a golden chain with the letter “D”. The two had been engaged, but instead of rings, they decided to wear the necklaces instead. The necklaces had been enchanted so that no matter what, they would always be able to find one another.

A sudden pain in the girl’s hand made her drop the bucket, setting free some of the crabs.

The man, Dorithmir, turned around. “Are you okay, Alaesia?”

Alaesia looked at her hand. The skin where she had touched the witch’s stone was purple. The witch’s stone was calling her. The witch needed a favor and she, Rayman, and Neshae had to do it.

“The witch’s stone is calling me.” She told him. “I have to go back to Rayman’s world.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Dorithmir asked.

“Tell you what. You stay here and make that seafood we’re gonna have tonight and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I guess so.” Dorithmir pretended to pout.

Alaesia smiled and created the portal to Rayman’s world.


Neshae sat at the dark in the classroom. Other students around him were silent, taking their tests. He had been saving the world with Rayman instead of studying and the material was completely foreign to him.

The bell rang. Time was up. All the other students got up and turned their tests in at the teacher’s desk. Neshae reluctantly got up and did the same.

The teacher looked at his test. “None of the questions are answered.” She said.

“I don’t even know why I’m here.” Neshae said. “I’m past this. I was beyond this years ago. This place shouldn’t even be here. It was blown up when Dark attacked.”

“Gone from insane to lying, huh? Don’t ever lie to me.” The teacher took out a fountain pen from a desk drawer and stabbed Neshae’s hand. The pain forced his eyes open.

Neshae sat up. He was back in the forest where he had fallen asleep for the day. Although Neshae was Rayman’s twin brother, he didn’t look much like him. His hair was dark and messy. His eyes were green like the leaves on the trees above him. Instead of a purple shirt with a white ring in the middle, his shirt was black with a red ring and a dot in the middle, like a bull’s eye. His shoes were bigger than Rayman’s and were colored with splotches of gray and green. His large, bat-like wings folded over his body, coming together over the bull’s eye and looking like a cape. Instead of wearing white gloves like Rayman did, he wore black biking gloves. Although they were retracted, he had the fangs of a vampire, for he had been bitten years ago.

What a weird dream, he thought, last time I drink that kind of blood right before morning.

But the pain in his hand wasn’t just part of the dream. The skin on the part of his hand that had touched the witch’s stone had turned purple. And Neshae knew that the witch was calling everyone for that favor they promised.

“Man, why can’t we do things at night for once? Why do I have to be the one waking up for everything?” Neshae began making his way toward the Fairy Counsel, where the three had planned to meet when they were called together.


Rayman was first to reach the Fairy Counsel. Alaesia was second, then Neshae. Once the rendezvous was complete, they set off toward Helm Mountain, where the witch would be found.


Chapter 2

It took most of the day for the three to reach the human city. Alaesia was able to pay for a room in the inn and some breakfast the next day. Since Alaesia was the only one whose form had changed, she bought it alone while Rayman and Neshae climbed in the window of the room. Their last encounter with the inn keeper had not been a good one. The detail will get better in a few sentences, I promise, just not a lot to the story at the moment. Then they were on their way again.

It took less time to reach Helm this time than it did last time. Maybe it was because they didn’t have to stop and fight Dark Rayman this time. Helm Mountain wasn’t big enough to be considered a mountain. It was only ten feet high. A large boulder marked the entrance to the final resting place of a hero. It was because of this that the humans had named this rock Helm Mountain.

Even though the sun set, making the shadows point to their left, the shadow of Helm went to the right, covering entirely a hole in the ground that was about twenty feet across. A veil of darkness covered the top of the hole, not allowing any of them to see more than three feet down into it.

Like he did the last time, Rayman yelled, “Hello!” into the hole. An enchantment had been placed on the hole so that if anyone came in without permission, they would never find the bottom.
Alaesia suddenly got a bad feeling about this. There was no reason for them to distrust the witch, but she was sensing danger. Something was wrong.

Wind blew through the trees. The leaves and branches brushing against each other seemed to form words, saying, “Who are you?”

“I am Rayman.” Rayman said. “This is-"

“Call me D.” Alaesia said, going back to her old name. She had gone by that name when she had bumped her head and lost her memory. Only the golden ‘D’ hanging from the golden chain around her neck gave any hint to her identity. “I don’t want her knowing my real name.”

Rayman frowned in confusion, but heeded her request. “This is D and my brother, Neshae.”

The wind blew again, this time saying, “What do you want?”

“Is she serious?” Neshae asked.

“You called us here to ask us for a favor.” Rayman called.

“Password…”

“Right.” Rayman said.

The scenery around them blurred and then spun around until the colors had blended into one. Then the colors separated and sharpened to reveal a small cottage at the bottom of the hole. Even though, from the top of the hole, it was dark, from here, light shone into the hole and illuminated the area.

Neshae walked up to the door and kicked it open. “The life of the party has arrived!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. He had made it clear long ago that sanity was not his strongest quality.

Rayman and D followed him in. The witch, still wearing a black dress and veil over her face, sat calmly at a table in the middle of the room. She was the widow of the hero buried in Helm and was still in morning for him.

Nothing else was in the room but three other chairs. A door on the far wall was the way to the other rooms of the house and there was light in the room that seemingly came from nowhere. The witch said nothing, but merely played with a lock of snowy white hair as the three walked in.

Not until they sat down at the table, did she speak. “I have called you all here for a reason.” She said. “Last time you were here you each touched my stone, magically binding you to any favor I ask of you. Well, I need that favor.

“I need you three to find some things for me.” She handed Rayman a piece of paper from out of nowhere. D and Neshae leaned over to see also.

D read the list. There were four things on it: the Sword of Raphael with the ability to cut through anything but fire because it would not harm its creator, the Goblet of Gabriel that held within it a powerful healing potion that would never run out or spill from it, the Staff of Michael that can control any element, and the Disk of Auriel that gives the bearer the power to shape shift.

D had heard legends of the archangels and the magical things they possessed, but had no idea they actually existed. But why would the witch want these things? D got that bad feeling again.

“Just out of curiosity,” Neshae said, “why do you need these? That’s a lot of power.”

There was a dark look in the witch’s eyes at that moment. “I guess there is no harm in telling you. It’s not as if you can refuse my request anyway.

“My husband promised me the world when we were engaged. He died before he could fulfill his promise. So I plan to bring him back to life with the spirit element, controlled by the staff. I shall heal his wounds with the healing potion in the goblet. With the sword, he shall conquer the world for me. And with the disk, we will be able to make ourselves young forever.”

“So wait a minute.” D said. “The favor you’re having us do is help you take over the world?”

“Exactly.”

“So what if we refuse to do it?” Rayman asked.

“According to the spell, if you do not do the favor I ask of you, the thing you love the most shall be destroyed.” The witch answered. “Deciding what to use for each of you was a little difficult, but I managed to find them.

“For Rayman, there is a fairy girl. I believe her name is Ly. And don’t think my magic can’t go across the dimensions, D. I know of the dark sorcerer you love named Dorithmir.” Her gazed turned to Neshae. “You were more difficult to bind, for I could not detect any person you love that I do not need alive. But then I discovered that it is your sanity you love, the last little shred of light that keeps you out of a straight jacket and a padded room. Without it, you would loose your freedom.”

This is crazy. D thought. We’ve gotta figure out some way out of this.

None of the three wanted to help evil win, but there was nothing either of them could do at the moment.

"Wait a minute." Neshae said. "There's one thing I don't quite understand."

"And what is that?" the witch asked.

"When we came to you to get to the desert, you used a swirly portal that we jumped into to teleport there. How come every other time we've teleported there was no portal?"

The witch hesitated for a moment, not quite seeing this question coming, then answered, "When I sent you through the portal I was actually sending you somewhat farther back in time. Tempistus was very close to the amulet and I needed to send you back so you would reach it before he did."

"So why did you wake us up so freakin early to do it if you could just send us back."

The witch gave him an irritated look, her patience thinning. "The farther back you go, the more energy it takes. I sent you back as far as I could. And I had not realized he was that close to the amulet until he was about to find it. He was about to take it by the time you three got into the portal."

"Ah." Neshae said.

“Now that we’ve come to an understanding,” the witch went continued after her interruption, “The Sword of Raphael is in a temple on the top of a narrow peak surrounded by mountains. The path to, in, and out of the temple will be dangerous. No one has done it, but I have faith in you three.”

I bet you do. D thought, bitterly.

“My magic cannot bring you back until you are outside the temple. Good luck.”

The scenery around them blurred, blended, changed to lighter brown, then separated, and sharpened. They were standing on a narrow pass between two mountains. To the east, they could see the top of a tower. It was the Temple of Raphael.

“How are we going to get out of this one?” Rayman asked.

“Well, there’s only one thing powerful enough to break a spell like this. We have to get the Snake Cross Amulet. I’ll get Fhuyt to bring it over here and then we can break the spell and go home.” D said.

D stretched her telepathy to her own world. She went to Fhuyt’s lair and saw that it had been trashed. Tables were flipped over and broken, papers were scattered, a mug of coffee was broken, its contents spilled across the floor. Fhuyt lay unconscious next to it.

Fhuyt! Wake up! D told him telepathically.

The elf began to regain consciousness. He sat up, dazed, and put a hand on his head.

What happened here? D asked.

“Alaesia, is that you?” The elf asked out loud. He looked around to try to find her.

I’m in your head. D told him. Tell me what happened.

Something came in here. Fhuyt spoke telepathically. They burst in. My magic did nothing. They were invincible. They were not from this world.

What did they want? D asked.

They took the Snake Cross Amulet.

The shock tore D from her telepathy and forced her mind back to the mountains.

“Someone stole the amulet.” she said. “We can’t use it. We’ll have to find some other way.”

Silence followed after. Everyone seemed to be speechless. It was Neshae who broke the silence.

“I don’t feel like walking.” He said. “Who should I fly across first?”

Rayman and D looked at each other. Rayman shrugged, signaling he didn’t care. D shrugged back and looked at Neshae.

“I’ll go first.” She said.

Neshae took hold of her waist and spread his large, bat wings. He flapped them and their feet left the ground as they took off after the temple.

“I liked you better when you were limbless.” The vampire said. “You weren’t as heavy.”

“And you wonder why you’re still single.” D said irritably.

Neshae laughed and flapped his wings harder, making them go faster.

In moments, they landed at the doorway of the temple. A staircase led down the side of the mountain. It was really all they could stand on, the peak was so small. The temple took up all of the space on the top.

Neshae dropped off D and flew off to get Rayman. A few moments later, the two returned and landed.

The temple was three stories high. Every stone that made up the outside was covered completely with either yellow or purple moss. The roof was dome shaped and almost looked brown, for both kinds of moss grew along its surface, blending together. At the base of the temple was a large opening.

“Well, we’re not going to get anywhere just standing here looking at the place.” Rayman said and led the way in.
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I'll let ya'll read that much while I'm proofreading the next chapters.

[Holy Crap]

i was wondering about the knaaren thing. looks good, i'll read more later.

[Neshae]

Eh, in my own personal opinion, none of my fan fics are quite as good as my first one. Though I'm trying to make my current one better than the first. Unfortunately so far I only have two chapters to that one. XD

Chapter 3

They walked down a long, dark hallway. The tile that made up the floors, wall, and ceiling were made of yellow topaz and amethyst, resembling the moss covered stones outside.

They finally came to a fork in the path. One direction went right, another left, and another went straight ahead. Still torches made of the same, yellow topaz as the tile hung on the walls. Something encased in the gems was glowing, creating a yellow light for them to see by.

“Which way do we go?” Rayman asked.

“Well, I was right about ‘right’ being the password to the witch’s house last time around. Maybe right is the answer this time.” Neshae suggested.

“Doesn’t hurt to try.” D said. “The witch didn’t give us a time limit.”

“Okay.” Rayman set off down the right hallway.

It wasn’t long before they came to another fork just like the last one. Neshae went past Rayman and took the right path. He was set on the “right” thing at the moment.

But the next thing they came to was a wall. They had reached a dead end.

“Right can’t be the answer all the time, I guess.” Neshae admitted, then turned around to go back.

When they came to the fork, he went straight. This path turned right once, then left three times. Soon they came back to the original fork. Straight ahead, they could see sunlight from the way they had come in.

“My turn.” D said and turned right. “Though, just our luck, it’s probably that one way we didn’t go that’s the right way.”

They reached another fork. Left and right appeared to lead to two rooms while the path straight ahead was either a dead end or turned. From where they were standing, it was impossible to tell.

“Stay here.” Neshae said and went into the room to the left. He came out and crossed over to the room to the right, saying, “Nothing there,” as he passed by D and Rayman. Then he returned, saying, “or there,” before he went into the hallway straight ahead. He called back to them. “There are stairs leading up!”

Rayman and D followed him. Sure enough, the hallway turned right and ended at a staircase leading to the second floor.

When they reached the top of the stairs, they found themselves in an empty room with just more glowing topaz torches. There was one hallway that led out. The path seemed unending, constantly turning left, turning right once, but then going left just as constantly. It almost felt like they were winding themselves toward the middle of the second floor.

As they reached one more right turn, Rayman was beginning to think this was too easy.
When they turned right, they found another staircase going up. The only problem was the small hallway was covered in giant spider webs. There were holes in the walls where spiders were probably dwelling.

“Looks like we’ll have to break through these webs to get to the stairs.” Rayman said. “We’ll just have to deal with the spiders when they come out.”
Neshae drew the handle of their father’s sword from his belt. At his will, a blade of flame sprouted from the handle. “No problem.”

He chopped through the spider webs, causing them to melt down and clear a pathway straight through the hallway. When the spiders felt their webs being disturbed, they crawled out of their holes and along the higher webs. Creating strings of more web, hey slowly lowered themselves downward to the three ruining their webs. It was then that Rayman noticed bones stuck in the webs above them. They were not small bones.

“Hurry, Neshae.” He said.

A spider landed next to Rayman and pounced at him. He punched it away. Another landed next to D, who threw a fire ball a it. It jumped to the side.

Three more spiders landed and attacked Rayman and a few more attacked D. They all seemed to pounce at once. Rayman sent out his fists furiously. A burst of red light reflecting on the walls told him that D had just sent more fire out. And the spiders just kept coming.

“Path clear!” Neshae said and sliced an attacking spider with his sword.

The spiders were becoming overwhelming. Rayman and D retreated, following Neshae up the stairs to the third floor.

They reached another room, this one with six ways to go.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Neshae said.

“You two keep the spiders off my back. I’ll find the way through.” D said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.”

Her eyes closed and she stood still. Rayman knew she had left her body and was seeking out the correct path to the sword. He and Neshae stood at the top of the stairs, ready for the spiders to attack.

They came to the opening in seconds. They seemed unending. Rayman had to punch constantly while Neshae sliced through the rest. Occasionally, a spider would get past them and go for D. Rayman would kick it and send it splatting against the wall.

D appeared behind them after a few moments. She pushed both guys aside and her entire body covered in fire. She held out her hands toward the spiders coming up and the fire moved from around her body down the stairs, incinerating all the spiders.

“I found it, but I sense extreme danger with it.” She said.

Rayman nodded and D turned to a corner of the room to the right and went through an opening. The tunnel turned left and D created a fire ball in her hand.

The torches in the room were amethyst instead of topaz like all the others. Floating above the floor at the back was the sword they sought. Next to it was a statue of a man. He was larger than human height and was made of regular stone except for his clothes, which were made of the same topaz and amethyst as everything else in the temple.

“That must be a statue of the archangel, Raphael.” D said. “Now I know why everything here is yellow and purple. It is said that he wears those colors.”

Rayman walked up to the floating sword and grabbed the handle. The statue next to the sword turned its head towards him.

“Holy sheitsky, it’s alive!” Neshae exclaimed.

Rayman stepped back, still holding the sword. The statue stepped forward and took a swing at him. Rayman ducked and ran out of the room with D and Neshae. There was a pounding sound on the wall as if the statue was trying to break through, for it would not fit through the hallway.
The temple shook suddenly. There was a distant crumbling noise and gravity seemed to shift slightly.

“The temple’s falling of the mountain! Let’s go!” Rayman said and the three ran down the stairs.
It took a while to retrace their steps, but they finally made it to the entrance of the temple. They could see a wall of rock shooting up past them outside. The temple was, indeed, falling.
They ran out and jumped. The ground was dangerously close. Neshae grabbed D and Rayman at once and flapped his wings, allowing them to escape the explosion of stone and gems when the temple hit the ground.

“You okay, Neshae?” Rayman asked his brother, who was panting. His wings were not strong enough to carry all three of them at once.

“Shut up.” Neshae grunted.

The scenery around them blurred. Just like every time before, the colors blended, changed, separated, then sharpened. They were back in the hole just outside the witch’s house. It was then that Neshae allowed his wings to relax and they all fell to the ground.

The door to the house opened and the three went inside. The sword flew from Rayman’s hands and stopped in front of the witch.

“The Sword of Raphael.” The witch said in awe. “With the power to cut through anything but fire. You have done well so far. It’s only just now night. I expected this to take longer.”


Chapter 4

“You will be staying here for the night.” The witch said. “I will send you to find the goblet in the morning. Now eat.”

A table and four chairs appeared out of nowhere and the table was immediately filled with food. As little as they trusted the witch, they ate the food. It had been a long day and they were hungry. Neshae felt tempted to bite the witch, but forced himself to settle for the food she provided.

When they were done eating, the witch spoke again. “I have noticed that my spell is beginning to take effect. You three tried to find a way to break the spell today. Now this isn’t directly betraying me, so your loved ones are still alive, just in a deep sleep.”

She swirled her hand in the air and a silver gas appeared. Images of both Ly and Dorithmir showed on the gas. Their eyes were closed, in a deep sleep as the witch had said.

“You won’t find a way to break the spell so just bring me those things like I told you to and your loved ones will survive. At least, as long as they don’t resist my husband when he conquers the
world.”

The gas disappeared and the witch showed them to their rooms behind the door on the far wall of the room. D’s was first, then Rayman’s, then Neshae’s.

D got into the bed in the small room. She tried to sleep, but as tired as she was, she couldn’t. She heard footsteps as the witch walked past her door. There was a sound of a door opening an closing and feet moving through the main room of the house.

Another door opened. D guessed it was the front door. She could hear voices. Rough voices. Voices she recognized from her last encounter with the creatures they belonged to.

D got out of bed and opened her door. She crept up to the door that separated the hallway from the main room. She put her ear to the door and listened.

“Did you succeed?” she heard the witch ask.

“Yes.” Said the voice of a knaaren. “The elf tried to stop us with useless magic, but we got past him easily. The Snake Cross Amulet was as good as ours.”

“Good.” The witch said. “I knew you were good enough for the job when I first saw you. That is why I had you chase the girl into Rayman at the start.”

A sudden realization came to D. When she had first come to this world, knaaren chased her and she ran into Rayman. They had never found out why the knaaren were so close to the Fairy Council. The witch must have seen D fall into this world and been planning this from the start. She had plenty of time to bribe the knaaren while D was unconscious. And now she sent the knaaren to steal the one thing that they could use to break the spell.

“Wait.” The witch said. There was silence on the other side of the door.

D tensed. Had the witch sensed her? She heard the faint sound of footsteps creeping towards the door. Hurriedly, D went back into her room as quietly as she could. She closed her door just as the other door opened.

Just as quietly, D got into the bed, her back to the door, and pretended to be asleep. She heard her door open and saw a square of light on the wall, blocked by the shadow of someone standing there. After a moment, the door closed. D relaxed.

Through the wall, D heard Rayman’s door being opened. Rayman was already asleep, for the only other sound was the door closing. Then the even fainter sound of Neshae’s door opening reached D’s ears.

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” D heard Neshae ask.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you were doing back there.” The witch said. “I do not wish to sense a spy again.”

“Look, lady.” Neshae said. “I have absolutely no desire to know what you do when you think no one else is watching. D, maybe. But you’re a little out of my interest. You have no reason to fear me looking through your key hole.”

There was silence for a moment. D was sure that if the witch hadn’t needed Neshae, that response would have gotten him killed.

“You just stay in that bed until I’m ready for you to get that goblet.” The witch said.

A cry of surprise came from Neshae and D heard the door close. The sound of footsteps went past her door and a final sound of a door open and close.

D wanted to find out more from the witch and the knaaren, but couldn’t chance it. The witch would be careful to sense her presence this time. Besides, she had to see if Neshae was alright. It was her fault anyway.

She got out of the bed and went silently to Neshae’s room. Remembering how loudly he could talk when he was annoyed, she knocked on the door.

“What now?” his voice sounded halfway between tired and annoyed.

“It’s me.” D said.

“Come in.” When D opened the door, he added, “I’d let you in myself, but as you can see, I’m a little tied up.”

When D entered the room, she saw that he was not joking. The covers had literally wrapped themselves around Neshae and the bed, tying him down. That explained the cry of surprise.

“I guess one day you’ll learn that not all women are as tolerant as I am.” D said.

“Hey, she was the one accusing me of sneaking a peek at her.” Neshae protested. “I have the right to defend myself.”

D tugged at the blanket that bound Neshae to the bed. It was no use. It would not let go. “You should learn to at least watch your mouth.”

“Well, as long as I’m stuck here, what do you want?”

“I wanted to see if you were alright.” D answered. “I was the spy so its my fault you’re in there.”

“Find out anything interesting?” Neshae asked.

D told him about what she heard. Neshae was silent for a moment.

“She needs a hobby.” He said. “Spending all your time planning attacks on the world can’t be good for you.”

“She’s about to get even unhealthier when we find that amulet.” D said.

“Did you catch where they hid it?” Neshae asked.

D shook her head. “But I will find out soon. But until then, we need to get some sleep if we’re going to find that goblet in the morning.”

“Can’t find anything better to do right now.” Neshae said. “Good night.”

“Good night.” D said and went back to her own room.


Another cry of surprise from Neshae’s room woke D up in the morning. There were banging noises like things falling to the floor. Then the witch’s voice rose over the racket.

“Calm yourself down or the next thing you will see is your own little padded room! I will even teleport you there myself to save the asylum some trouble.”

D got out of the bed and stuck her head out the door. The witch walked through the hallway and Neshae stumbled behind her with a dangerous look on his face.

Rayman was next to wake up. He came out of the room, still half asleep. “What’s going on?”

The witch walked past him without answering the question. As Neshae passed him, he said, “I’m about to kill this hag, that’s what.”

Rayman looked at D. D shrugged and the two followed the witch and Neshae into the hallway.

“The Goblet of Gabriel is in a temple that rests on a floating island in the middle of a lake.

This challenge will be greater than the last. Like before, I will not be able to teleport you back until you are out of the temple. Good luck.”

The colors around the three blurred, then blended into a single shade of brown. Then the color changed to a teal color and separated into shades of blue and green. Then they sharpened and a lake surrounded by forest lay before them. An island floated in the middle of the lake. The Temple of Gabriel stood on that island. And behind them, the sun was just beginning to rise.


Chapter 5

D looked at Rayman. “I guess it’s your turn to go first.” She said.

Before Rayman could say anything, Neshae lifted him up and flew across the water.

“I want to get this done and over with as fast as I can.” Neshae said. “The sooner we get done with this, the sooner I can settle the score between me and that hag.”

“What happened?” Rayman asked.

Neshae told him that D had been spying on the witch last night and the witch’s deal with the knaaren. The witch had sensed someone spying on her and thought it was Neshae. He gave a remark and she tied him to the bed with her magic. Then she had lifted the head of the bed, shooting him out of it. He and the head of the bed had crashed to the floor. In his outrage, Neshae had pounced at the witch to bite her, but missed and hit a wall. The witch had seen it coming and stepped to the side. That was when she began shouting.

Neshae flew around the perimeter of the temple, searching for their way in. They finally found it on the western side of the temple and on the third floor. He dropped Rayman off there and flew away to get D.

This temple had about the same structure as the Temple of Raphael, only the door was right under the dome roof and the mosses that grew on the stones were blue and orange.

Neshae arrived shortly with D. The two landed next to Rayman and they ventured inside the temple.
The tile that made up the walls, floor, and ceiling of this temple were made of sapphire and orange aventurine. Like the other temple, this one had no torches in the entry hallway.

There was a rushing sound up ahead. When the three got closer, they came to a waterfall. There was no room that the hallway opened up to that had a waterfall. A wall of water fell from the ceiling, blocking their way out.

They walked through the waterfall. There weren’t a lot of options to choose from. It was either go through or go back. When they stepped out on the other side, not only were they drenched, but there was a new problem.

The room was round with five more waterfalls to go through. That meant every path looked exactly the same. It would be very easy to get lost. Every waterfall slid down hill into the center of the room, where there were holes in the floor to let the water drain down to the next floor.

D closed her eyes and stood still. This time she remembered to just leave her body and find the way to the goblet, saving them time.

After a moment, she opened her eyes. “This will be difficult. I can’t remember exactly which path is the right one after this choice. They’re all alike inside too.”

“You remember which way to go this time, right?” Neshae asked.

D nodded and chose the path straight ahead, ignoring the four to the sides. The other hallways had torches made of the orange aventurine. If the patterns between the two temples were this alike Rayman knew the room with the goblet would have torches of sapphire.

At the end of the hallway, they found a staircase leading down to the second floor. The second floor looked almost exactly the same as the third. The only difference was this one had a giant pillar of water shooting from the middle of the ceiling where the drain in the floor was on the third floor. This one also had a drain that went to the first floor.

But what this room also had were snakes. Big snakes. They were scattered around the room sleeping.

“That’s not good.” Neshae said. “Which way do we go?”

D closed her eyes again. When she opened them she pointed to the path between the one directly to their left and the one straight ahead.

“You two go ahead.” Neshae said. “When you find the goblet, something is gonna happen and wake these snakes up. I’ll lure them away.”

“Neshae, don’t get yourself killed.” Rayman said. “If you don’t think we can handle the snakes with three of us, what makes you think you can handle them yourself?”

“It’s not a matter of how we can fight. The Temple of Raphael fell off a mountain when we got the sword. And now we’re going towards the bottom of the temple. Doesn’t that scream ‘this place is gonna sink when we get the goblet’? We won’t have a lot of time to get out of here, much less a lot of time to fight snakes while we’re swimming. This is the only way and I’m the fastest. Now go.”

“He’s right.” D said. “Come on. Good luck, Neshae.”

Reluctantly, Rayman followed D through the snakes and the correct waterfall. He heard Neshae shout and bang stuff around on the walls, followed by a series of hisses.


Neshae shouted at the top of his lungs and picked up the closest snake. He threw it against the wall. Then he punched and kicked the wall. Snakes had no ears so he had to create vibrations to wake them up. The snakes woke up and hissed as they began slithering towards him. Now to lure them away.

“Catch me if you can, worms!” he said and ran back through the waterfall he had come out of.
He looked back to see if the snakes were following him. Heads sprouted from the bottom of the waterfall. Their bodies slithered out next with a speed that almost matched Neshae’s vampire speed.

He ran up the stairs and through the waterfall at the end of the hallway. As he came out he was forced to skid to a stop. A snake head that was ten times the size of the heads of the snakes following him peaked out from the waterfall to his left.

He remembered the snakes coming up behind him and ran to the right. The giant snake snapped at him, but a good dive and roll was all he needed to do to dodge that.

The giant snake coiled, preparing to strike again. Neshae got to his feet and waited until the last possible moment to jump out of the way. The plan was to keep dodging the snakes and lead them outside, where he had the advantage of flight.

The snakes slithered out of the waterfall and entered the room. The giant snake turned its head towards the snakes and attacked them instead.

Neshae raised an eyebrow in surprise, but then an idea formed in his head. A single snake slithered in his direction. He caught it and held it out to the giant snake as an offering.


Rayman and D finally reached the bottom floor and found the room with the Goblet of Gabriel. The torches in this room were made of sapphire, just like Rayman had suspected. There was a statue of Gabriel, clad in the colors of the temple, just like the statue of Raphael had been.

Expecting what would happen this time, Rayman went into the room alone and took the floating goblet from the air. The statue came to life and Rayman ran out of the room. There was a sudden movement, like the island had stopped floating, just as Neshae said it would.

“Time to go.” He said as water spilled from the walls. He and D waded through the water as fast as they could. By the time they had gotten to the middle of the room, they were swimming.
Water spilled down the stairs, indicating that the other floors were flooding as well. The temple was going under.

They fought against the current to get up the stairs, but it was too strong, they were flung back into the room.

“We can’t get out!” D said over the roar of the water. “And those snakes are bound to be back soon!”

Rayman refused to give up. Once again, he fought to beat the current, and once again failed.

“I sense something coming our way.” D said. “It’s either a big something or a big group of something. Here come the snakes.”

Rayman looked at the walls to see if there was anything to climb onto, but they were pretty solid. No handholds. The water was rising too fast for the safety to last long anyway. The doorways were under water now.

Something big came through the doorway that led to the stairs. It appeared to be a giant snake.
The head came out of the water behind them. This snake looked like all the others, but ten times their size. Riding on its back was Neshae.

“Bet you’re glad I went off earlier now, huh?” he said. “Climb on. There are probably more water creatures outside the temple and it’s sinking fast.” D and Rayman climbed on the snake’s back and sat behind Neshae. “Hang on.” He said and the snake dove under the water and retraced the entire way out of the temple.

The temple was entirely under water by the time they were out. Bubbles of air rose to the surface with the snake and the three riding it.

The snake broke into the air and the three gasped to fill their lungs with oxygen. They were ferried over to the beach. Once they got off the snake, the scenery blurred. They were being teleported back to the witch’s house.

They were teleported directly into the house this time. The goblet immediately flew out of Rayman’s hand and went to the witch, who stared at it in awe.

“The Goblet of Gabriel,” she said, “containing a healing potion that can heal any wound, will never run out nor spill from its goblet. Well done.” The goblet vanished into thin air like the sword had. “Time for you three to find the Staff of Michael.”

“Wait.” D said. “I’m sick of calling you ‘the witch’. What’s your name?”

“I was once called Figuya. But that was a long time ago. Your next temple will be even harder than the last. It floats above a volcano filled with a lake of lava. You three will have to be quicker this time, for you will not be able to swim out.”

The colors blurred. When they sharpened, the three were looking at the Temple of Michael floating over the lava, the sun just beginning to sink to the right of it.

[Neshae]

Here's another few chapters.

Chapter 6

“My turn.” D said and Neshae lifted her up and flew to the temple. Like the last one, this one’s entrance was on the top floor. He dropped her off and flew back for Rayman.

This temple was just like the others except the colors of the moss were red and green, the colors Michael wore. The air was hot and humid here from the lava that was barely over twenty feet below the temple. D hoped that his temple didn’t sink as fast as the last one. They barely made it out of that one alive.

Neshae returned with Rayman and they went inside the temple. The tile was made of rubies and emeralds this time and the torches were made of ruby, covering everything in a red light. A good deal of the time, D almost felt like she was in a dark room, getting ready to develop film.

They came to their first fork. Several ways went sort of straight ahead, one way went left, and another way turned so sharply to the right it almost with parallel to the hallway they had just come out of.
D closed her eyes and allowed her soul to leave her body and roam free through the different paths. Most led to dead ends, but at last, in the path to the left, she found the stairs.
She came back to her body and opened her eyes. “This way.” She said and turned left.

They followed that path for a while, going past several turns until there was no longer a straight option. They turned right and found the first staircase going down.
They went down the stairs and were immediately faced with another fork.

“I’m getting kind of bored with these mazes.” D said and closed her eyes to leave her body again.


There was a noise. It was so subtle that only Neshae’s vampire senses could pick it up. He turned and looked back up the stairs. Something was wrong.

A wall of bars shot down from between the rocks. Neshae leapt to the stairs and caught the cage door as it came down. They could not be trapped here.

The wall knocked the breath out of him as it hit. It took all his vampire strength to keep it from closing and leaving them stranded.


“Neshae, are you okay?” D asked. She and Rayman turned around and saw Neshae catch the bars.

“Just go!” He grunted. “I can’t hold this forever!”

D turned left and followed the path until they came to a room with a hole in the floor. A wooden ladder went from the top of the hole to the floor of the room below. If anything happened to that ladder they would be trapped with the lava without Neshae’s wings.

D climbed down the ladder, then waited at the bottom for Rayman. Once he reached the bottom, the two turned around and saw the Staff of Michael floating over a green pedestal. Between them and the staff was a mote of lava. Red stepping stones broke the surface, allowing passage to the treasure. Torches made of emeralds hung on the walls. All that was missing was the statue of Michael.

“I’ll get it.” Rayman said and jumped from stone to stone towards the staff. D looked back up the ladder, wondering if Neshae was still okay.

Rayman took the staff and turned to go back. D saw the lava around him rise and come together to form the shape of a man. The emerald pedestal shattered and the pieces mixed in with the red lava. There was no statue of Michael. The lava was Michael.

Rayman jumped from stone to stone back to D. The lava man shot a blast of lava at him.

“Duck!” D shouted.

Rayman listened and the lava shot harmlessly past him, but melted the next stone. That wasn’t a problem. Rayman jumped and spun his hair like a helicopter to fly a little farther and land on the next stone. One more jump and he was across.

He shoved D to the ladder, making her go up first. D climbed up, Rayman right after her. Lava covered the floor and burned the ladder. D made it out and Rayman had almost made it when balance was lost and the ladder fell to the lava, taking Rayman with it.

D reached out and grabbed his hand. With her help, he climbed up to safety. But the lava was still rising and the ground shook. The temple had stopped floating and fallen into the lava.
D and Rayman hurried back to the stairs. The walls were already beginning to melt. Finally, they reached the stairs, where Neshae barely had the bars still off the ground. There was just enough room for them to crawl under.

“It’s about time.” Neshae said as he saw them go past him. “Do you have any idea how heavy this is?”

“We appreciate you holding it up for us.” Rayman said and helped pull Neshae out from under the bars.

Once he was free, the three ran up the stairs and through the hallways to the opening. They could see the smoke rising from the lava outside to the sky above and a soft breeze of cooler air met their faces.

Gravity shifted towards the opening. The temple was falling over and closing up their way out. The three hung onto the torches to keep from falling through the opening and to the lava. An orange glow on the stones told hem the lava from inside the temple was just behind them. In seconds they would be buried in a fiery grave.

Rayman held out the Staff of Michael. The power of the staff was the ability to control the elements. Lava was only a mixture of fire and earth. D saw what he was doing and added her own magic to the staff’s.

The lava ceased falling and hardened to stone. Together, the two used their magic to pick up the temple and allow their own escape. Once the opening was clear, Neshae spread his wings and flew out with D and Rayman.

The instant they were clear of the temple, the scenery blurred and the teleportation routine was complete when they were standing inside Figuya’s house.

As usual, the staff flew out of Rayman’s hands and into the witch’s.

“The Staff of Michael, with the power to control any element.” The staff disappeared like the sword and the goblet. “You three have done much better this time. It is late. You three must stay here until morning. Then I will send you to the Temple of Auriel.”
The table, chairs, and food appeared in the middle of the room again and again the three ate and were showed to their rooms.

D could not sleep. She could not just accept that they were so close to helping a bad guy win. There had to be some way out.

There was a way, D realized as she closed her eyes. It would be difficult, for she had never tried it before, but it was the only way. She had to find the amulet and the only way was to leave her body and search for it. She had never left her body so far for so long. It was time to give it a shot while time was still here.

D left her body. She glanced down at her sleeping form on the bed and hoped she would be able to go back inside it after this. She concentrated hard on the Snake Cross Amulet. She concentrated on going to its location, wherever it might be.

It took a few minutes and a lot of energy, but the image of the Snake Cross Amulet began to form in front of her eyes. It was on an altar in a room of stone like it had been when they had found it in the desert of the knaaren. A knaaren stood next to it, guarding it. D recognized it as the knaaren that had chased her into Rayman the day they had first met.

Once she had memorized what the room looked like, D floated around random hallways until she reached outside. The building was just a small one made of stone. Judging by the size of the stones and how new they looked, D decided the knaaren must have just built this place to guard the amulet. Several knaaren stood outside to keep watch, some of which were the same knaaren that D had fought when she and Rayman found the amulet.

What kind of deal did the witch strike with them? D wondered. There was no way she could have gotten that many knaaren to do this for free.

All around the building were trees. In the distance, D could sense that the Temple of Auriel was near. She could not see it, but she could feel it was there.

At last, her soul could not stay out of its body any more and she was sucked back in. And from the loss of energy, she immediately fell asleep.


Chapter 7

Neshae burst through the wall and into Rayman’s room, waking him up. He and the witch were fighting again.

Neshae stood up and looked through the hole he had come out of. “I hope that hole takes you forever to fix!” he shouted.

The boards came back together magically. In moments the wall was fixed without a sign that Neshae had gone through it.

After seeing the expression on Neshae’s face, Rayman couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, she is a witch.”

Neshae gave him a sideways glance. “Yeah, well…” then he opened the door and walked out.

Rayman got up and left the room after his brother. D was waiting in the hall and watched as Neshae left into the main room.

When Rayman approached, she asked, “What happened this time?”

“Dunno.” Rayman answered. “As far as I know, Neshae and the witch were fighting again and Neshae burst through the wall.”

“You two love birds hurry up!” Neshae called from the doorway.

“Better do what the vampire says.” Rayman joked.

“Yeah.” D said. “He might bite us.”

“Come on.” Neshae was saying as they entered the room. “We’re not getting any younger!” To the witch, he added, “The minute we get back I’m gonna kick your-“ He didn’t have the chance to finish, for they were teleported to the next temple.

Trees surrounded them. There was no sign of the temple anywhere. Neshae flew up above the trees. When he came back down he said he couldn’t see it from a bird’s eye view.

“Looks like we’re walking.” D said. “Did you see another building anywhere, one heavily guarded by knaaren?”

“Hold on.” Neshae took off again. When he came back down he pointed to the west. “That way.”

“Why do you ask?” Rayman wondered.

“I left my body last night and went farther than I have ever gone before. And I found the Snake Cross Amulet in that building.” D answered.

“Then let’s go get it.” Neshae said. “You first this time, Rayman.”

“Wait.” Rayman said. “Remember what the witch said when we were going to the fire temple? She told us we had to be quicker this time. That means she’s watching us. And if she sees us going to the amulet instead of the temple, don’t you think she’ll see that as betrayal? The amulet would be a little useless.”

Not knowing what else to do, the three searched for the temple. D left her body to find it and they reached it a few minutes later.

This temple actually looked like ancient ruins. The stones that made up the outside were covered with mosses that were every shade of green and brown. Through the one opening on the bottom floor, they could see that plants had grown inside.

The three had to pick their way through all the plant life growing inside the temple. The tile could barely be seen through the vines, but when it could be seen, it was made of many different green and brown stones like the mosses growing outside. There were torches on the walls made of different shades of green, casting the hallway in a kaleidoscope of green light.

As usual, when they came to the first fork, D left her body to find the correct path. This time they went straight ahead.

They stopped when they came to what appeared to be a dead end. In the ceiling there was a hole to climb through, but they would have to fly to get to it and it was too small for Neshae’s great wings to fit.

“Check this out.” D smiled and stepped forward on what appeared to be air. She took another step, going a little higher in the air. It looked as if she was walking up an invisible staircase. “I love this part.” She looked back at them. “Come on.”

Rayman felt around for the first step, then followed D up the stairs. Instead of taking the time to feel for the first step, Neshae took a leap and landed halfway up the staircase.

To their surprise, when they made it to the second floor, they immediately found another hole in the ceiling on the far wall. A line of tiles that were all the same shade of green cut the room in half. There was nothing else in the room.

“I don’t like this.” Neshae said. “It screams ‘trap’.”

“You’re right.” D said and closed her eyes, leaving her body again. She opened them a moment later. “There are creatures all over the place. They can’t seem to pass that line there.’

“Invisible stairs and invisible creatures.” Rayman said. “I hope the disk isn’t invisible.”

“Actually, the stories say it’s made of diamond.” D told him. “It only makes sense that it’s so hard to get to.”

“You guys distract them.” Neshae said. “I’ll go get the disk.” In an instant, his colors completely matched the colors of the tile around him. Camouflage.

D walked all the way to the left, just barely on her side of the line. Rayman followed. He couldn’t see if the creatures had followed as well, but D reached a hand across the line and jerked it back suddenly.

“Oh, you’ll have to be quicker than that!” she teased one of them that apparently tried to grab her hand.

Rayman could hear a growl as a creature became frustrated. Rayman smiled and joined in the mischief, putting his foot across the line and quickly pulling it back. He heard a different kind of growl, a different creature.


Although he couldn’t see if he had to step around any of the invisible creatures, Neshae managed to sneak by successfully. Behind him, he heard D say, “Oh, you’ll have to be quicker than that!”

He took the time to feel for the stairs this time. If he jumped on them like he had last time then one of the creatures might hear him and come his way. And fighting something you can’t see or generally hear is difficult.

He made it up to the third floor. Like the second, it was just one room. The torches were brown, making the room look like it was filled with carmel. The Disk of Auriel, bearing a pentacle carved on one side of it and a hexagram carved on the other, sparkled as its diamond surface reflected the carmel colored light. The only problem was someone had beaten him to it.

The man was half his height and was covered in green and blue fur. Its ears were pointed almost like an elf’s, but the tops turned around so the points were pointing to the floor instead of the ceiling. A cloak that blended in with the colors of the tiles of the temple covered it as it reached a clawed hand for the floating disk.

Neshae pounced on the creature. It had been days since he’d had any blood and he wasn’t about to let this person get away with the disk.

The creature turned around just in time. The disk in its hand, it jumped to the side and ran for the stairs. With vampire speed, Neshae got between him and the stairs.

The green thing stopped in its tracks. It looked up at Neshae with big eyes, just staring at him. Neshae stared back at him, wondering what it was planning next. He was careful not to look into its eyes in case it knew hypnotism.

With its next move, the creature began to shape shift. When the change was complete, it was a mirror image of Neshae.

“Come on!” Neshae said. “Can’t you come up with a better one? Where’s your imagination?”

“Okay.” It said in Neshae’s voice and transformed once again. Its skin became blue and slimy. Its body became not a lot more than a big, blue blob with limbs. Eyes sprouted on its face. Instead of just Neshae’s vampire fangs, a mouthful of sharp teeth opened as the creature, who was ten times Neshae’s size, roared.


D and Rayman were still distracting the invisible creatures on the second floor when a roar sounded from above the stairs.

“What the…” Rayman said.

“We’re loosing them.” D said. “They know someone’s up there now. Look out, Neshae!”


While Neshae stood there stunned, the creature changed back to its original form and ran past Neshae down the stairs.

Neshae cursed and ran down the stairs after it. From below, he heard D shout, “Look out, Neshae!”
The creature slipped the hood of its cloak over its head, blending in almost completely with the walls and floor around it.

“One’s coming up to your right!” D shouted to him.

She shouted a little too late. The wind was knocked out of Neshae as a large, bear-like paw slapped him against the wall. Neshae activated his camouflage and ran for the line.


A small creature wearing a cloak that blended in with the walls ran past Rayman. Rayman would have just let it run by, but it had a diamond disk in its hand. That was the Disk of Auriel. Rayman ran after him.

He chased the creature all the way outside until it was lost in the plant life, heading towards the building where the Snake Cross Amulet was kept. A smile spread across his face as he realized what an advantage they really had.

D and Neshae joined him outside, followed by a crash as a giant ball crashed into the doorway.

“We got chased out by a tone of those balls.” Neshae said. “You triggered them and we took the heat.”

“Sorry.” Rayman apologized. “I was just trying to catch that thing.”

“Where is it?” D asked.

Before he could answer, the three were teleported back to the witch’s house. But this time, the disk was not immediately taken out of Rayman’s hands, for they did not have it.

“Where is the Disk of Auriel?” the witch asked angrily.

“Someone beat us to it.” Rayman tried to keep a straight face. “We chased them down, but we lost them. They were heading toward this building that was to the west of the temple.”

Rayman though the witch might explode with rage. But she didn’t. Instead, she teleported them to the building. What else could she do if she wanted the disk?


Chapter 8

“I’ll go in by myself.” D said. “I know where the amulet is and I can keep the knaaren off me better than you guys can.”

She turned around and went towards the stone building. Knaaren tried to stop her, but she grabbed them with her soul power and flung them against the outer walls. When the knaaren patrolling the inside attacked her, she did the same to them.

Before long, she came across the first knaaren she had ever fought when she discovered her soul powers for the second time. She could see the anger in his eyes. She was the only thing to ever escape him. It was humiliating to the knaaren to be defeated by anyone.

“Come back for some more?” she asked him. “What kind of deal did Figuya strike with you to go so far over a little amulet?”

The knaaren she had already thrown were coming up behind her. She didn’t care. She wanted to find out what that deal was.

“She promised to bring Reflux back from the dead.” The knaaren told her. “And when the world was hers, we’d get to take our revenge.”

“Well, that will be hard to do.” D said and shoved him to the side with her soul powers. The other knaaren came after her, but she merely pushed them away and kept walking. It was taking a huge amount of her energy, since she rarely used her magic unless she needed to.

Finally, D found the room where the amulet was kept. And as she had suspected, the knaaren that had chased her into Rayman was standing guard. It was not hard to hold him against the wall and take the amulet from its altar.

The Snake Cross Amulet was exactly what it sounded like. Two glowing, blue snakes were stuck together to make a cross with a glowing, blue ring around the intersection. A chain hung from the mouth of the longest snake so the amulet could be worn. D placed the amulet around her neck and turned to leave the room.

All the knaaren she had passed, and then some, were coming in through the doorway. The thing they hadn’t realized was that the amulet had powers, lending her the energy she needed to burst through them.

A wave of power escaped from her and tossed each knaaren in a different direction, allowing her through the door. Some got back up and came after her again. Those were repeatedly thrown against walls. Others were smarter and stayed behind.

D finally made it outside and ran back to the trees where Rayman and Neshae were hiding.
“You got it!” Rayman said.

“Took you long enough.” Neshae said.

“We’re gonna have to hurry if we’re going to get this spell off us.” D took the amulet off and held it out. “The knaaren are coming and the witch is bound to find out soon. Touch the amulet.”

As instructed, the twins held out a hand and touched the amulet. D concentrated on removing the spell that bound them. The amulet began to glow red instead of its normal blue. The red light shot into each of the three touching it so that now they all were submerged in red color.

One by one each of them felt the spell being removed. As they became free, the vibrant color vanished around them. Then finally, all three of them were bound by no spell.

D put the amulet back around her neck. It also had returned to its original color.

There was a sound form the trees behind them as the creature from before tried to run past them. Neshae quickly reached out and took the disk from it.

“No!” D and Rayman said at once.

The instant the disk was in Neshae’s possession, the scenery around them blurred and they were teleported back to the witch’s house.

“That was a waste of time.” Figuya said as the disk was forced out of Neshae’s hands. “All you had to do was get that disk for me and the spell would be released. Instead, you just did me a favor. I owe you one. I will tell the knaaren to make your deaths less painful, but I doubt they will try too hard.”

The hands of time began to turn backwards for the witch as she used the disk’s shape shifting power. Her white hair became black, the small waves growing unto curls. The wrinkles on her skin smoothed out. When the transformation was complete, she was once again young and beautiful. The only thing that did not change were her eyes, which still carried her many years of suffering.

“Bye.” She said and teleported herself out of the hole her house was in, leaving the three trapped in the veil spell.


Figuya approached her husband’s grave. His body had rested inside the Mountain for too many years, sealed away by a large boulder at the opening. That was about to change.

“You will reign once again, my love.” She whispered. Then, turning her back to the tomb, she faced the forest that surrounded it. From out of nowhere, she summoned the Staff of Michael.

With her power, trees and earth separated. The trees came to life, instantly becoming her minions. Stones came together to form giant monsters whose strength was greater than that of even the vampire’s. Soil and water combined to create mud creatures that would bury victims at her command. An entire army, once part of this world, now about to take it over.

She smiled with satisfaction, then returned to the grave. She called one of her rock demons and had it remove the boulder that sealed her husband’s tomb. The body of Kweniah was reduced to bones, laying upon its altar of stone.

With the spirit element, she sucked her husband’s soul back into its body. The Goblet of Gabriel appeared out of nowhere and she poured its liquid inside the skeleton’s mouth. Every bit of damage that had ever been done to his body in the past was undone. Flesh, blood, and organs formed themselves around the bones. Hair and nails sprouted on his head and fingers. His eyes were closed, but she could tell his eyes had returned as well.

From a trunk to the right, she summoned his clothes. They flew to the body and wrapped themselves around him.

When the healing was complete, his hair was sandy colored. His eyes opened up to reveal the color of new leaves at the dawn of Spring. He gasped for air and looked up at the face of his rescuer.
“You’re back.” The witch said and embraced him. He sat up and returned the embrace. “I always knew this day would come. Follow me.”

The two left the tomb and she introduced her army. “This is our army.” The Sword of Raphael appeared out of nowhere and forced itself in the former hero’s hand. “This is your sword, with the ability to cut through anything but fire. The world is now ours for the taking.”

“You have done well, Figuya. The world shall be ours.”


D telepathically contacted Fhuyt.

We’ve got trouble. She said. I need you to round up an army and get over here.

You can’t be serious. Fhuyt said. What’s going on?

A witch got the archangel possessions and brought her husband back from the dead. She raised an entire army from the forest and is trying to take over the world and feed us to the guys that stole the Snake Cross Amulet. Get over here!

There was a moment of silence in D’s head before Fhuyt finally answered her. But when he did, he said, I’ll be there as soon as I can.

“Okay.” D said. “The SAE is on their way and we have the amulet. We may stand a chance.”

“I’ve prevailed in worse situations.” Rayman said. “Just get us out of here.”

With the power of the amulet, D took down the veil spell. D and Rayman climbed out while Neshae flew to the top. For the first time, they could see the house from the top of the hole.

The army was marching away from them, the witch and her husband in the lead. It was at that moment that a portal opened from D’s world and Fhuyt and his army appeared.

“Hello.” The elf said. Dorithmir; Shigyu, the blind man from D’s last mission; Bujit, the blind man’s wife; and a bunch of others stepped through the portal with him. “This is Naeisy.” He gestured to a three-eyed woman with red, curly hair. The eye on the left was red, the middle one was orange, and the last was gold. She wore a dress that looked like the sky and even seemed to change as a cloud passed over. “She has advanced fire magic. In fact, she can do almost anything with her fire.”

He gestured to a rock golem twice his size. “This is Bahelsihe, set free by the SAE a month ago. He’s super strong and can control stone.”

“Good.” D said. “We’re gonna need that.”

Fhuyt continued. “This is Janeishe, Bahelsihe’s wind golem sister. We set her free just before we reached him. She can take possession of any body and control it as she wishes.”

He gestured to a girl whose hair was made of black and silver streaks. Her eyes were a deep shade of violet and she was clad in black leather. “This is Aneishen, our weather sorceress. She also has limited shape shifting, turning herself into plants.”

Last, he gestured to a man clad in clothing made of leaves, flowers, and shedded animal fur. His hair was brown like the trunk of a tree. “This is Lewrynd. He is able to control animals of earth, water, and sky.

“You know everyone else. Let’s fight this enemy.”

“You guys fight the army.” Neshae said with vengeance sparkling in his eyes. “I’ll take on the witch.”

“Hate to break it to you, but you need to fight her husband. He sword can cut through anything but fire and you have Dad’s fire blade.” Rayman said. Neshae was about to object when Rayman added, “Besides, you could take greater revenge by killing him again.”

Neshae looked at Rayman for a moment. Just causing the witch pain didn’t seem as satisfying to him as killing her, but he settled for it. “Fine.” He said and flew above the army to search for Kweniah.

“I’ll take on Figuya.” Rayman said. “I’ve fought tougher bad guys before. She’s not so tough when she’s not holding Ly hostage.”

“Good luck then.” Fhuyt said. “Will you be fighting with us this time, Alaesia?”

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Then, in the name of light and darkness, let’s kick some ass!” Fhuyt drew his sword, shouting his battle cry. The others cheered behind him and the miniature army charged into battle.

[Holy Crap]

not bad, but i agree that you're other one was better.

[Neshae]

Yeah, this one isn't my best. Past readers have said my fourth one is really good, though. Anyway, here's the last chapters.

Chapter 9

Immediately, Janeishe forced herself into the body of one of the mud monsters and buried a rock creature. It crawled its way out easily, so she left the mud monster and entered the rock creature. A few of the other soldiers noticed her and started to fight her even in her new body.

The sky darkened as Aneishen brought dark gray clouds above the battle. Lightning struck the branch of a tree and set it on fire. Hail the size of golf balls pelted everyone.

“Stop that hail!” Fhuyt shouted over the thunder. “You’re hurting us more than you’re hurting them!”

The hail ceased and Aneishen put her concentration into zapping the trees with lightning.

Naeisy found a group of the rock creatures. Her dress was now almost black with streaks of lightning traveling across it. She reached out towards the group and fire sprouted from the ground around them.

The stone creatures hesitated in surprise as the fire formed a circle around them, trapping them in the inferno. The fire spun around them and grew higher into the sky until it formed a giant cone around them. The intensity of the flames was enough to light the darkness for miles and it just kept getting hotter.

Finally, the stone creatures could no longer take the heat and they burst apart. Stone fragments shot out of the blazing cone of flame and cut through a few mud monsters, destroying them as well. Naeisy, however, hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Blasts of power lit up the sky as the fairies came to help protect their world. The witch teleported her knaaren allies to the scene, adding to her army. D beat some monsters senseless with her soul powers and shot fire at others. Dorithmir created little tornados and sent his enemies flying, where they were caught in midair by the animals Lewrynd called for help. Neshae hunted for Kweniah and Rayman hunted for Figuya.


It took Neshae a while to find Kweniah. He found the zombie towards the east, chopping away anyone in his path. Neshae landed in front of him.

The Sword of Raphael swung at the vampire. At the last second, Neshae drew his father’s sword and blocked the blow. Kweniah drew back, surprised.

“How do you like fire?” Neshae asked. He made a few mad slashes with his fire blade, and forced the zombie backward. “Not so tough when you can’t cut through me, are you?”

As if the remark had triggered something in Kweniah, he spun around suddenly and brought his sword down on Neshae.

“Woah!” Neshae dove to the side. He would not let himself be surprised again.

The sword swung at his head. He ducked and swung his own sword at Kweniah’s legs. As if he had seen this coming, Kweniah jumped over the fire blade as it passed under him.


It wasn’t long before Rayman found Figuya. She was using the Staff of Michael to turn more trees into her minions. When she saw him coming, she held out her staff and fire sprouted out of the ground around him, trapping him in a flaming circle.

“You did such a good job at helping me get this far, Rayman, that I’ll make you an offer. Join me. I’ll spare you and your friends over there and Ly. With you, my army will be unstoppable.” She said.

Rayman could see her just above the flames, like she was using the air magic in the staff to fly. He wound up his fist, fearing this would be his only chance.

The haunting smile on Figuya’s face dissolved into fury. “Join me or perish in the flames!” she screamed and the fire rose around him, blocking her from his view. His fist wound down and the ring of fire began to close in on him, much like it had when he and Dark had first fought years ago.


D burned a minion to a crisp with her fire magic. She glanced over to the right and saw the witch surround Rayman in flames. There was only one way to save him.

She ran to the circle of inferno and leapt at the witch. Figuya was distracted for a moment and the flames died down just enough for Rayman to see through them.


Rayman saw D come at the witch with her fire magic. And he also saw the knaaren come at D from the other side. There was a mere instant to react.

He remembered the power the Ancient had given him in his last adventure with D. It was the power to make a sound powerful enough to knock any being to their feet. The only problem was it would also knock D to the ground, not letting her destroy the witch in time to save him from the flames that were now dangerously close.

Rayman took a deep breath and screamed. It made more of a vibration than a sound. The witch, the knaaren, D, and a few others within the sound’s reach were knocked to the ground. The fire was now getting too close and his skin felt like it had been in the sun all day and was burning.


D fell to the ground. She saw the knaaren and the witch fall as well. She would not be able to fight the knaaren and the witch and save Rayman in time.

Dorithmir She called telepathically. I need help!


Kweniah had managed to back Neshae up against a tree. He was stronger and faster than any human the vampire had ever seen.

The Sword of Raphael came down at him and he blocked it with his father’s fire blade. One quick move to the side and the zombie flung the sword out of Neshae’s hands. The sword was now aimed at his heart, the only place where a stab would kill him.


Dorithmir answered D’s cry for help and was immediately at her side. Seeing Rayman’s peril, he called rain from the storm clouds Aneishen had brought and put out the fire. Rayman looked a little overheated, but alive.


The fire disappeared. Cool rain fell from the sky and cooled him down.

The witch was still on the ground as a result from his scream. And, although it was against him to hit a girl, this was an exception. He wound up his fist.

The witch’s eyes got wide when she saw he was free and quickly tried to take him out with a fire ball.

Rayman could have easily stepped to the side to avoid the fire ball, but D stepped between the two and held fire up between herself and the approaching fire ball, creating a shield. The fire ball hit harmlessly and D took down her shield.

“Let me take this one, Rayman.” She said. “I know you don’t want to fight a girl if you don’t have to. Go help Neshae.”

Rayman hesitated for a second, but then went off in the direction he saw Neshae go.


Chapter 10

“So you would like to die first then.” Figuya said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Only one way to find out.” D responded.

Figuya smiled. A breeze picked up around them. Although it merely made Figuya’s hair wave slightly, it was almost strong enough to blow D off her feet. D found it difficult to keep her balance.

Figuya called three stone creatures over. “Don’t you see? You can’t beat me. You have given me all the power I need to beat you. You barely even know how to use that amulet.”

She was right. The Snake Cross Amulet had hundreds of powers, but D only knew how to unlock a few. The rock creatures ganged up on her, ready to make the final move. D could barely keep her balance, much less fight accurately. She glanced at Dorithmir, but he was busy fighting off the knaaren that had attacked her.


Rayman found Neshae just as the fire sword was knocked out of his hand. Kweniah held his own sword aimed at the vampire’s heart.

Rayman wound up his fist and shot it at the zombie. The blow knocked him to the side, giving Neshae the distraction he needed to escape and retrieve his sword.

Kweniah turned around to fight again, but Neshae jumped over him and shoved the sword through his side. The magic was undone, the spell broken. Kweniah was dead once again.


The monsters stopped fighting as a look of terror appeared on Figuya’s face. She turned around and saw her husband with Neshae’s fire sword in his side. The zombie fell dead to the ground.

“No!” she screamed, her voice filled with agony.

“Alaesia, catch!” Dorithmir threw his sword towards Figuya.

Understanding his plan, D used the amulet to teleport in front of the witch and caught the sword.

“You!” the witch seemed to look right through D at Rayman and Neshae. “You have slain my love! Die!” she held out a hand as if to send a blast of something deadly their way.

“Not today.” D shoved Dorithmir’s sword through Figuya’s stomach.

There was a look of shock in the witch’s eyes before she died, but at the same time, a look of relief. She and Kweniah would now be together forever.

When the witch was dead, so were her spells. Trees once again stood still. Mud and stone fell to the ground, not to move again.

Aneishen’s thunder clouds disappeared and her lightning stopped. The only part of the army that was left was the group of knaaren, who were teleported back to the desert. And the four archangel possessions fell to the ground from mid air.

Fhuyt picked up the Sword of Raphael. “We could use these at the SAE.”

Rayman shook his head. “I have a better idea. Besides, they could get stolen just as easily as the amulet was.”

Fhuyt nodded in understanding. “We’ll have to work out that bug. But now that the battle is over, we should be going back to the SAE.”

“See ya later.” Rayman said.

D and Dorithmir joined the group as Fhuyt prepared to open the portal back to their world. “You guys let me know when the world needs saving again.” D said. “I’m having fun.”

Fhuyt opened the portal. Rayman and Neshae waved as the army stepped into it and vanished.

“So what was your better idea?” Neshae asked.

“It’s kind of dangerous to keep them together, guarded or not. And we barely made it out alive when we were getting them through the temples. I think the temples ought to be restored.”

Neshae nodded. “Sounds good to me. But I’m exhausted. Get the fairies to help you with that.” With a small wave, he said, “See ya later,” and flew off.


Neshae got back to his spot under the tree and relaxed. It was mid-morning by the time he got there. He was finally able to get back to his normal sleeping schedule and he was going to pick up right where he left off. He closed his eyes and began to dream about the past.

The End

[Holy Crap]

it's good, but it seems you lacked inspirtation for this one.